OMRI, or the Organic Materials Review Institute, was the first of its kind in an industry that today relies on such organizations to help ensure the integrity of organic certification.

“We were actually the reason that the acronym MRO, which stands for Material Review Organization, was created by the USDA, as we were the first MRO in the U.S.,” said Roger Plant, marketing manager of OMRI, during an Aug. 21 presentation at the Oregon Association of Nursery’s Farwest Show in Portland, Ore.

The Eugene-based nonprofit, which was launched in 1997 with just two people, has grown up alongside the organic food industry, now employing more than 80, including 60 who review products for organic compliance.

Today, when an organic certifier, a processor or a famer needs to know if a farm input is organically compliant, for many, the first step is to open the OMRI website and check whether the product is among the thousands of products on the OMRI list.

Chris Schreiner, chief executive officer of Oregon Tilth, said OMRI provides the industry an invaluable service.

“An important part of organic certification is verifying that all inputs used in agriculture production, as well as in post-harvest handling and processing, comply with USDA National Oregon Program regulations,” Schreiner said. “Material review organizations like OMRI play a vital role by providing a list of brand-name inputs they’ve verified to meet organic standards. This service saves time for both certified operations and certifiers, and it supports the third-party oversight that assures consumers they can trust organic products.”

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OMRI, now one of several material review organizations operating in the organics industry, is among a select few recognized as leaders in the field, Plant said. As evidence, 40 of the approximately 80 organic certifiers in the world subscribe to OMRI, including several state departments of agriculture.

Outside of the organic certification industry, however, OMRI is relatively unknown. “We are a small cog in a big machine,” Plant said, “but we are an important cog.”

Born out of need

OMRI was born out of a need to align state organic certification requirements, a need that emerged as the organic industry started gaining momentum in the U.S. food market.

“It was the Wild West,” Plant said of the early days of organic certification. “Something that was considered organic in New Jersey was not considered organic in California. So, manufacturers would have to get certified in California, and then they would have to go through the process again for New Jersey. And as the industry grew a little and matured a little, they said, ‘this is not going to work.’”

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The organizers sought to level the playing field, “not only for the farmers and the ranchers, but also for the manufacturers,” Plant said.

OMRI’s growth has largely paralleled that of the organic food industry, an industry that now encompasses about 6 percent of U.S. food sales, up from about 2 percent of market share in 2012, according to figures from the Organic Trade Association and Statista.

And while organic sales have grown, so too has the number of eco-friendly labels that now appear on food products. The plethora of labels can be confusing for consumers, Plant said, giving rise to the need for labels that bring integrity to the marketplace.

“People buying these healthy, environmentally sound products want to know that they’re not being greenwashed,” he said, “and the USDA organic seal does that.”

The OMRI list of organically compliant products includes about 10,000 product names, Plant said, and is constantly being updated as older products go off market and new ones come on.

“As science and technology marches on, there are all kinds of innovations, and all of these products need to be vetted in a way that is true to the regulations and is trustworthy from the consumer standpoint, the farmer standpoint and the whole supply chain,” he said.

Desk review

Much of an OMRI review involves a “desk review” of farm inputs, Plant said, including reviews of product formulations that OMRI receives from manufacturers, a process that often involves the signing of confidentiality agreements to protect the integrity of formulas.

Reviewers will then analyze a product’s labeling and packaging and look at a product’s manufacturing process.

From there, products that are approved as organically compliant receive annual reviews. Every three to five years, reviewers may visit manufacturers of approved products. “We often do a physical plant inspection of their operation to make sure that what they told us is true,” Plant said.

OMRI selects which products to review primarily one of two ways, Plant said. “A lot of companies will come to us and ask us to review their product,” he said.

“The other way is when consumers request something from a farmer and then a farmer says, ‘I want this product OMRI listed,’ and so they’ll go to the manufacturer, and the manufacturer will approach us.

“We don’t list every product,” Plant added. “We probably reject three of every ten products we review, because they are not compliant. And then the manufacturer has to reformulate it or choose to go into the nonorganic market.”

Plant noted that the reason many farmers will ask for an OMRI listing versus another organization’s stamp of approval when pursuing organic certification is because of the weight an OMRI listing carries in the marketplace. It’s a weight built on years of providing thorough, non-biased products reviews, he said.

“In my opinion, we just do it better,” Plant said.